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Ulises Carrión
THE NEW ART
OF MAKING BOOKS
page 2
PROSE
AND POETRY
In an old book all the
pages are the same.
When writing the text, the writer followed only the sequential laws of language,
which are not the sequential laws of books.
Words might be different on every page; but every page is, as such, identical
with the preceding ones and with those that follow.
In the new art every page is different; every page is an individualized
element of a structure (the book) wherein it has a particular function to
fulfill.
In spoken and written
language pronouns substitute for nouns, so to avoid tiresome, superfluous
repetitions.
In the book, composed of various elements, of signs, such as language, what
is it that plays the role of pronouns, so to avoid tiresome, superfluous
repetitions?
This is a problem
for the new art; the old one does not even suspect its existence.
A book of 500 pages,
or of 100 pages, or even of 25, wherein all the pages are similar, is a
boring book considered as a book, no matter how thrilling the content of
the words of the text printed on the pages might be.
A novel, by a writer
of genius or by a third-rate author, is a book where nothing happens.
There are still, and
always will be, people who like reading novels. There will also always be
people who like playing chess, gossiping, dancing the mambo, or eating strawberries
with cream.
In comparison with novels,
where nothing happens, in poetry books something happens sometimes, although
very little.
A novel with no capital
letters, or with different letter types, or with chemical formulae interspersed
here and there etc., is still a novel, that is to say, a boring book pretending
not to be such.
A book of poems contains
as many words as, or more than, a novel, but it uses ultimately the real,
physical space whereon these words appear, in a more intentional, more evident,
deeper way.
This is so because in order to transcribe poetical language onto paper it
is necessary to translate typographically the conventions proper to poetic
language.
The transcription of
prose needs few things: punctuation, capitals, various margins, etc.
All these conventions are original and extremely beautiful discoveries,
but we don't notice them any more because we use them daily.
Transcription
of poetry, a more elaborate language, uses less common signs. The mere need
to create the signs fitting the transcription of poetic language, calls
our attention to this very simple fact: to write a poem on paper is a different
action from writing it on our mind.
Poems are songs, the
poets repeat. But they don't sing them. They write them.
Poetry is to be said aloud, they repeat. But they don't say it aloud. They
publish it.
The fact is, that poetry, as it occurs normally, is written and printed,
not sung and spoken, poetry.
And with this, poetry has lost nothing.
On the contrary,
poetry has gained something: a spatial reality that the so loudly lamented
sung and spoken poetries lacked.
 
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